Vizquel < Father Time

by R.J. Anderson on Jun 30, 2008 9:38 AM EDT Comment 1 comment

At what point does a putrid bat outweigh a putrid bat? That's a question the San Francisco Giants need to answer heading into the trade deadline. Okay logically speaking a 41 year old with an OPS sub .415 has about as much positive value to other teams as an outbreak of the bird flu, but this is a 41 year old who still has a very good glove. Could a contender find a spot on the bench for Vizquel's glove?

Asking him to bat would be an injustice to the team, but he's made the same number of out of zone plays as David Eckstein in roughly 13 games worth of innings less. Baseball Prospectus has Vizquel at -14 BRAA and 4 FRAA, which tells you all you need to know about why he's no longer a starter, and especially not on the Giants:

Player	Age	OPS
Bocock	23	0.414
Burriss	23	0.709
Vizquel	41	0.414

It wasn't too long ago that Bocock was the punch line of offensive inability, but even Jose Vidro is out-performing Vizquel by more than .100 points of OPS. The worst part here is that Burriss actually has a positive FRAA and a neutral BRAA as a 23 year old with only 60 or so at-bats above A-ball and yet he's not playing. In fact since Vizquel returned on May 10th Burriss has started in 11 of the 45 games, roughly less than a quarter of the time.

At some point the Giants are going to be forced into benching Vizquel for Burriss, unfortunately this should be that point and yet I'm quite confident that Vizquel's victory lap will include five starts a week.

0 recs | Comment 1 comment

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Burris

He was rushed to the bigs too quickly (in terms of both ability, experience, and starting his service time when it didn’t need to), but with the Giants shortstops hitting like they are, you can see why. I see Burris as a SS who will struggle to keep his OPS above 700, but has 50+ SB ability and can take a walk. He just has Pierre like power, which is pretty detrimental. I’ve heard a lot of questions about his defense, but from what I’ve seen myself he looks adequate. Good footwork and a quick arm (albeit one that isn’t known for much power).

A quick look at Burris splits will show you he’s benefited greatly from facing a good portion of lefties, as Burris is a vastly superior right handed hitter. In fact, I could see him having to turn completely righty one day (I imagine the left handed batting ability is spiked even more because of his speed and it helps his ability to get INF hits)

Burris will undoubtedly struggle with his share of the starts as well, but short of putting up with Rich Aurilia’s defense at SS, it is likely the Giants will be last in SS offensive production this year.

www.wazzel.com (prove your sports knowledge if you can)

by NeifiChicken on Jul 1, 2008 7:15 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs